Kite-runners in Jaipur

Jaipur, India

January 8th, 2019

We are in India right now, in Jaipur, in the state of Rajasthan, (“the place of the rajas, or kings”).  The Jaipur Kite Festival is starting soon, but delighted children are preempting its beginning from every rooftop in the neighborhood.

Colorful kites are soaring in the skies competing with the birds, and the surrounding trees are decorated with fallen kites - the ones that have crash landed.  It looks like a sort of festive arial Christmas celebration.

I was curious to see whether it was only the boys who were the kite-runners, but we’re seeing little girls hoisting their kites into the air with equal skill, sometimes while trading a baby back and forth with her sister.

These are little kites, different from the larger ones we see in the West. These seem to require a clever skill, as the little masters tug and pull and make their kites fly high in the air spinning in tiny circles.

To catch a favorable breeze that sends a kite high into the air is partly the skill of the kite-runner, partly a gift of the wind.

What would it mean to be truly free, flying high in a joy of realization?  And yet always grounded in humility, tethered by a string of grace, to the line of great teachers who’ve come before us.

In a moment, we can so easily come crashing down - becoming disconnected and entangled in so many leaves and branches of material desire and distraction.

Every offering we send up is a delicate balance between our sincere desire to love and serve; and a gift of God’s grace, lifting us up to heights that we could hardly have imagined before.

All the best,

Rukmini Walker